Keep your dirty hands off the North, Ahern told
Ian Paisley today warned Taoiseach Bertie Ahern: “Keep your dirty hands off Northern Ireland.”
As London and Dublin waited for an IRA statement to signal an end to the Provisionals armed struggle, the Democratic Unionist leader also told republicans any peace pledges would take months to prove.
Mr Paisley ruled out hopes of a swift return to power-sharing involving Sinn Féin after talks with the Taoiseach at the Irish Embassy.
Riled by Mr Ahern’s intervention over this summer’s marching season, the DUP chief went on the offensive.
The 90-minute session was described by Mr Paisley as “brutally frank, absolutely straight”.
He revealed: “I did say that I didn’t want the Taoiseach to put his dirty hands on internal Northern Irish matters and I said it to his face.”
Mr Ahern, who has called for the Orange Order to enter parade negotiations, defended his actions as an attempt to stop trouble flaring in Northern Ireland during the summer.
“We just want to get safely through the parade period,” he said.
“I don’t see how anyone could take offence if they want to see peaceful parades.”
Both men were in agreement, however, that it is time for IRA action on ending all violence, rather than just words.
A response from the Provisionals to Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams call for them to commit to totally democratic means is expected within weeks.
Mr Ahern, who had separate talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, insisted the organisation did not necessarily have to disband.
He suggested it could remain as a commemorative body.
Parades and old boys’ reunions could be organised so long as it ceased all paramilitary activity, the Taoiseach said.
But whenever the IRA statement emerges, Mr Ahern said it had to be clear and unambiguous about halting all terrorism and crime, and completing decommissioning.
“It is not just words, it is deeds,” he stressed.
“If we get a statement on the issues I have mentioned, we would be very happy with the statement, but we would naturally enough want to see that they happen.”
With unionist trust in republicans shattered by the £26.5m (€37.8m) Northern Bank heist and the Robert McCartney murder, both blamed on the IRA, Mr Paisley is in no rush to go back into a new power-sharing administration alongside Sinn Féin.
The North Antrim MP, who heads Northern Ireland’s biggest political party, said it would take months for the IRA to first prove any promises were genuine.
He declared: “Everybody has their tongue out waiting for a statement from the IRA. We haven’t got our tongues out.
“What the IRA says is totally meaningless, except we have action.”
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain intensified the pressure on republicans, expressing hope that the devolved institutions could be restored provided the IRA destroy all its weapons.
In his first British House of Commons question time as Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Hain put the onus firmly on the IRA to end all paramilitary activity and criminality.
“We’ve got to banish the bullet and the bomb and all criminality and paramilitary activity from Northern Ireland’s politics,” he said during Commons question time.
“Now, despite the progress made on that front, it’s still not good enough.”
Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy urged the British and Irish Governments to impress on unionists the need for a resolution.
Pledging his party’s total commitment to the peace efforts, he said: The process cannot be allowed to stand still any longer.
“They need to make this absolutely clear to the DUP in particular.
“A failure to engage by the DUP cannot allow the process of change to become stalled.”
Eddie McGrady, the SDLP MP for South Down, demanded to know from the British government what would be an acceptable IRA statement.
“It is clear that fudge and ambiguity have only worsened the stalemate we now find ourselves in,” he said.
“I hope that the Governments have learnt this lesson and will set clear standards for the provisional movement and the DUP to live up to.”
